LESSON
10 Programs and Patches
After completing this lesson, the student should be familiar with the following concepts:
• Synthesizers use various methods for selecting patches. Common schemes include use of bank and num-
ber buttons, alpha dials, and increment/decrement buttons.
• It is important to know how to switch patches, because listening to a synth’s patches is an easy way to
determine a particular synthesizer’s capabilities.
• Four very common raw sounds on synthesizers are saw, sine, square, and pulse waves. Each kind of
wave has a distinctly different sound.
• Each synthesizer makes sound a slightly different way, and as such, no two synthesizers can produce
exactly the same sound.
• Some synthesizers are very specialized, and as such, produce only one kind of sound (piano, drum, etc.)
• Some patches on synthesizers are intentionally monophonic and are designed to be played in the style of
early synthesizers.
• Not every sound is appropriate for any part being played on the keyboard. It is important to constantly
access the appropriateness of a particular sound for the part you are currently playing.
• General MIDI synthesizers have very similar sounding sounds in specific locations in memory so that
songs played on different synthesizers will at least sound similar.
Glossary for this Lesson:
Alpha Dial- A large, flat knob usually with a thumb hole used to enter values into a synthesizer. Turning
clockwise increases the value on the synthesizers screen while turning counterclockwise decreases the
value shown on the synthesizer’s screen. Alpha dial can often be used to step through different patches on
a synthesizer.
Bank- A set of patches. Banks can hold 8-128 patches depending upon the synthesizer in question. Many
synthesizers allow users to select patches by first pressing a bank button and then pressing a number to
select a particular patch from within that bank. The advantage of this system is that a very small number of
buttons can be used to call up a very large number of patches. Early synthesizers didn’t group patches in
any particular order while more modern synthesizers tend to group similar sounds into banks (pianos, bass
guitars, etc.)
Decrement- A button used to decrease a value shown on the synthesizer’s screen by one unit. Decrement
buttons can often be used to step downwards through a synthesizer’s sound list.
General MIDI- A synthesizer specification developed in 1991. General MIDI or GM requires that the
synthesizer has certain capabilities. Among them, the synthesizer must have at least 128 patches, organized
into 16 banks of 8 sounds each, and certain types of sounds must be in certain memory locations. (E.g.
patch 1 must be an acoustic piano, patch 53 must be choir ahhs, etc.
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Basic Music Technology Lesson Ten: Programs and Patches
Increment- A button used to increase a value shown on the synthesizer’s screen by one unit. Increment
buttons can often be used to step upwards through a synthesizer’s sound list.
Pulse- A waveform commonly found on vintage synthesizers. The duty cycle of this pulse wave is often
varied continuously to produce a continuously changing timbre. Pulse waves generally sound rather nasal,
but can also sound somewhat hollow when their duty cycle approaches 50%.
Saw- A waveform commonly found on vintage synthesizers. Saw waves are full of harmonics, and thus
have a very buzzy sound.
Sine- A waveform commonly found on vintage synthesizers. Sine waves have only one harmonic, which is
their fundamental, and thus have a very pure, mellow sound.
Square- A waveform commonly found on vintage synthesizers. A Square wave is merely a pulse wave
with a duty cycle of 50%. Square waves have only odd numbered harmonics, and as such sound rather
hollow, not unlike a clarinet.
HELP YOUR STUDENT EXPLORE AND LEARN MORE
The best way for students to learn to call up patches on synthesizers is hands-on experimenta-
tion. Take an hour or so out of your day to visit a pro-audio music store again. Salespeople are often
more willing to let students try out instruments when their parents are present. As before, try to find
a time that the store is not horrifically busy. Keep the volume low on the instruments you try, and be
respectful of others in the store.
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LESSON
10 Programs and Patches
In the last lesson, we learned a little bit about KINDS OF SOUNDS
the history of the synthesizer and learned how to The earliest synthesizers could only produce a
make the basic connections needed to make a few different raw sounds. Modern synthesizers of-
synthesizer work. In this lesson, we will get hands- ten try to copy the way these old synths sound, so
on and find out how to play different synth sounds. you often see the names of these raw sounds in the
When looking at any synthesizer for the first names of patches on modern synthesizers. The most
time, the single most important thing you need to common raw sounds are saw (which sounds buzzy),
know (except maybe how to turn it on) is how to square (which sounds hollow), sine (which sounds
change the patch the synthesizer is set to. By changing pure) and pulse (which sounds sort of nasal, but con-
through the different patches, you can hear the stantly changes). You will sometimes see these
different sounds the synthesizer is capable of making. sound’s names appear in the names of patches on
modern synthesizers. A patch might be called “Hol-
SWITCHING PATCHES low Sq.” for a square sound. (The name of sounds
There are almost as many ways to change are sometimes abbreviated because you only get to
sounds on a synthesizer as there are synthesizers. In use 8-12 letters to name your sounds on most mod-
synthesizers, each sound is given a number. Older ern synths.)
synthesizers have one numbered button for every More modern synths will have categories of
patch in their memory. This is great in a live perfor- sounds, like strings (which would be all sorts of vio-
mance situation, because you can just push one but- lin, cello, bass and orchestra sounds) or brass (which
ton and instantly have the sound you need. As would be sounds like trumpet, french horn, and trom-
synthesizer’s memories got larger and they could bone).
remember more patches, manufacturers came up with
a system of banks and numbers. A synthesizer might DIFFERENT SYNTH, DIFFERENT SOUND
have 8 buttons to call up patches 1-8, but then it might It is important to realize that it is not possible to
also offer eight banks. You would push a bank but- make the same exact sound on two different synthe-
ton and then a number button to get the sound you sizers. Each synthesizer has its own unique sound
want. This way, only 16 buttons can access 64 sounds. all its own, and cannot exactly duplicate the sounds
Many modern synthesizers use increment/dec- from other synthesizers. This is because every syn-
rement buttons. These buttons basically increase or thesizer makes sound in a slightly different way. We
decrease the number of the patch by one each time will learn a lot more about the different ways syn-
you press a button. They are often marked with a + thesizers make sound at a later time. This is the rea-
or - sign, or an abbreviation like INC or DEC. Other son that professional musicians will often have many
synthesizers use a large knob called an alpha dial to different synthesizers in their setup, because they can
select sounds. By turning the dial clockwise, the syn- create many different kinds of sounds.
thesizer steps up through its patches. Turn it the other
way and the synthesizer goes to lower numbered SPECIALIZED SYNTHESIZERS
patches. Some synthesizers have a combination of Some synthesizers (old or modern) are very
increment/decrement buttons and an alpha dial. This specialized and produce only a few kinds of sounds.
is very helpful, because you can quickly move For instance, they might produce only drum sounds,
through a lot of patches using the alpha dial, or step only piano sounds, or only organ sounds. Many mod-
through them one by one with the inc/dec buttons. ern synthesizers fall into this category, because they
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Basic Music Technology Lesson Ten: Programs and Patches
only produce synthesizer sounds, but no sounds that
The General MIDI
sound like acoustic instruments. It is important to
Tone Map
notice what kinds of sounds each synthesizer is ca-
pable of producing, because otherwise you could
spend hours looking through a synthesizer’s patches
for a flute sound, when the synthesizer is only ca-
pable of producing synthesizer sounds.
KEYBOARDS ENSEMBLE SYNTH SFX
MONO SOUNDS 001 Piano 1
002 Piano 2
049 Strings
050 Slow Strings
097 Ice Rain
098 Soundtrack
You may recall from the last lesson that most 003 Piano 3 051 Synth Strings 1 099 Crystal
004 Honky-Tonk Piano 052 Synth Strings 2 100 Atmosphere
early synthesizers were monophonic. These mono- 005 Electric Piano 1 053 Choir Ahhs 101 Brightness
phonic synthesizers caused players to play them in a 006 Electric Piano 2 054 Voice Oohs 102 Goblin
007 Harpsichord 055 Synth Vox 103 Echo Drops
very different way than you play a piano. Modern 008 Clavichord 056 Orchestra Hit 104 Star Theme
synthesizers usually offer you a choice when mak- CHROMATIC PERC BRASS ETHNIC
009 Celesta 057 Trumpet 105 Sitar
ing a new patch. The synthesizer can respond like a 010 Glockenspiel 058 Trombone 106 Banjo
monophonic or polyphonic synth. It is important to 011 Music Box 059 Tuba 107 Shamisen
012 Vibraphone 060 Muted Trumpet 108 Koto
listen carefully to each sound to see if it is a mono 013 Marimba 061 French Horn 109 Kalimba
sound. Attempting to play a mono sound polyphoni- 014 Xylophone 062 Brass 1 110 Bag Pipe
015 Tubular-bell 063 Synth Brass 1 111 Fiddle
cally (i.e. more than one note at a time) will not give 016 Santur 064 Synth Brass 2 112 Shanai
good results. ORGANS REED PERCUSSIVE
017 Organ 1 065 Soprano Sax 113 Tinkle Bell
On this same note, it is important to continually 018 Organ 2 066 Alto Sax 114 Agogo
listen to sounds and decide if the sounds are right for 019 Organ 3 067 Tenor Sax 115 Steel Drums
020 Church Organ 1 068 Baritone Sax 116 Woodblock
the part you are trying to play. Pianos are very for- 021 Reed Organ 069 Oboe 117 Taiko
giving, and most keyboard-like parts played on them 022 French Accordian 070 English Horn 118 Melo Tom 1
023 Harmonica 071 Bassoon 119 Synth Drum
sound good. It is very important to remember that 024 Bandoneon 072 Clarinet 120 Reverse Cymbal
synthesizers are not pianos, and as such, some sounds GUITARS PIPE SFX
025 Nylon-String Guitar 073 Piccolo 121 Guitar Fret Noise
do not work well at all with some parts. This is why 026 Steel-String Guitar 074 Flute 122 Flute Key Click
it is very important to turn a critical ear towards our 027 Jazz Guitar 075 Recorder 123 Seashore
028 Clean Guitar 076 Pan Flute 124 Bird
playing and constantly ask ourselves if what we are 029 Muted Guitar 077 Bottle Blow 125 Telephone 1
creating is musically effective. 030 Overdrive Guitar 078 Shakuhachi 126 Burst Noise
031 Distortion Guitar 079 Whistle 127 Applause
032 Guitar Harmonics 080 Ocarina 128 Gun Shot
SALUTE THE GENERAL! BASSES SYNTH LEAD
033 Acoustic Bass
In 1991, many synthesizer companies decided 034 Fingered Bass
081 Square Wave
082 Saw Wave
that it was time to create a standard sound set for 035 Picked Bass 083 Synth Calliope
036 Fretless Bass
synthesizers, so that musicians could count on the 037 Slap Bass 1
084 Chiffer Lead
085 Charang
locations of certain sounds. For example, patch #1 038 Slap Bass 2 086 Solo Vox
039 Synth Bass 1
must be an acoustic piano sound, while #53 must be 040 Synth Bass 2
087 5th Saw Wave
088 Bass and Lead
a choir ahh sound. This sound set was called Gen- ORCHESTRA SYNTH PAD
041 Violin
eral MIDI. You can tell if a synthesizer is General 042 Viola
089 Fantasia
090 Warm Pad
MIDI because it will have the General MIDI sign on 043 Cello 091 Poly Synth
044 Contrabass
it’s front. While many synthesizers are GM compat- 045 Tremolo String
092 Space Voice
093 Bowed Glass
ible, most are not because you can only use so many 046 PIzzicato Strings 094 Metal Pad
047 Harp
copies of those same 128 sounds. You can see the 048 Timpani
095 Halo Pad
096 Sweep Pad
listing of GM patches to the right.
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Lesson Ten: Programs and Patches Basic Music Technology
Let’s Review
1. What are the four ways we learned about that synthesizers allow you to select patches?
2. What are the four raw sounds that we learned about, and how does each one sound?
3. Is it possible to make the same exact sound on two different synthesizers?
4. Do all synthesizers have every kind of sound?
5. Why is it important to listen to each sound carefully?
6. What is General MIDI and what does it do for us?
Words To know: Did You know?
Alpha Dial Pulse In 2000, the MMA (MIDI Manufacturer’s Associa-
Bank Saw tion) created General MIDI version 2 which has the 128
Decrement Sine General MIDI sounds plus 128 more new sounds.
General MIDI Square In addition to specifying which patches are where in
Increment a synthesizer, both GM 1 and GM 2 specify a synthesizer’s
polyphony, what effects it has to have, and how many
multitimbral parts it must have.
Experiments:
1. Look at several different synthesizers and see if you can figure out how to listen to the different
patches that instrument has to offer. What kind of control does each instrument use to change
sounds? An alpha dial? Bank and number buttons? Inc/dec buttons?
2. Play several different synthesizers. Do they sound different from each other? Do many of the
sounds in each instrument have a sort of similarity?
3. As you listen to different patches, can you see patches that use the four raw sounds we learned
about?
4. Try out a general MIDI synthesizer. Is the quality of sounds as high as other synthesizers? What
are some of the advantages and disadvantages of General MIDI?
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